The FIFA World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15

FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Russian President Vladimir Putin

MOSCOW, June 13. /TASS/. International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) President Gianni Infantino at the FIFA Congress in Moscow thanked Russian leader Vladimir Putin for hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup, a TASS correspondent reported.

"A big thankyou to you, Mr. Putin for your engagement, for your passion, for making us really feel part of the same team. To your government, to the local organizing committee, to the Russian football union, to all the volunteers in Russia, and to all the 150 or more million Russian people, who are welcoming the world here in the next month," Infantino said.

2018 FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, the first-ever hosted by Russia, will be held between June 14 and July 15, 2018, in 11 Russian cities - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Sochi and Rostov-on-Don.

Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Uruguay will make up Group A, while Group B will include Portugal, Spain, Iran and Morocco. Group C is going to consist of France, Australia, Peru and Denmark, while Group D will be Argentina, Iceland, Croatia and Nigeria. Group E will be composed of Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Serbia. Group F has Germany, Mexico, Sweden and South Korea, while Group G will encompass Belgium, Panama, Tunisia and England. Finally, Group H has Poland, Colombia, Senegal and Japan.